Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Yep, the title runs through Sacto, let me tell ya. 
We be saavy though -- how do you take an embarrassingly close victory over a team that has lost 13 in a row and make it feel good? Come so close to choking the unchokable that it requires a buzzer beater. Then the relief alone makes it all good.
Artest ( C- ) -- grabbed some early boards and beat up rookie Jeff Green. But I am not sure he was eer truly focused onthis game4. There was a teamwide malaise that I think naturally results when you are facing a team that hasn't won since 2007 int he midst of a lost season. Got into foul trouble in third but that wasn't really muhc of a problme for us one way or the other. Came back though to miss shot after shot as we struggled to give the game away in the early 4th. Did finally force up and hit a shot in the final two minutes -- you just knew he was going to take it no matter what, just a question whether we got lucky or not. Tonight we did. Ron is frequently delusional of course, but I doubt he himself would have much to say for his game this time out.
Moore ( C ) -- open inside and out early, but not competing on the glass. I could almost stop this grade after that sentence because....Mikki Moore played a LOT in theis game. He racked up minutes like KG. And in those lot of minutes I am struggling, seriously struggling, to think of one other thing he did of note the whole game. He was outboarded by the Wilcox/Collison/thomas crew, rarely scored after the intial push, and just sort of took up space.
Miller ( B- ) -- put up solid across the baord numbers in a game which did not really feel that solid. His early highlight was hitting three that would have to be termed "big" as much as any shot would be big in a game like this, to break a 2nd quarter Seattle run and push us back out to being up 9. Thought at the time it might be Seattle's one and only run at being respectable. Little did I know at the time that we were going to get in a dogfight with the worst team in the game for the entire second half. Was agin the only King even pretending to rebound, and the irony of us being a team depending on Brad Miller as our rebounding rock is rich beyong belief. Was missing his shots, including a baseline jumper late that helped keep the Sonics in it. And then earned hiself a nice big 'ole grade reduction here for doing the big n' stupid in one last desperate attempt to let the Sonics steal it in the last minute, getting in a scrum with Kurt Thomas with us up 4, and then getting mad because a foul was not called for him and so wildly swinging his arms and intentionally fouling Thomas -- letting the Sonics go down to the other end wiht the clock stopped and cut the lead back to 2. Could easily have been a technical too, which frankly would have served him right for not being able to hold his water, as usual, and setting us up to lose the game minus the Martin heroics.
Martin ( A- ) -- this is an interesting grade for all the obvious reasons, but also for this one: Kevin Martin was sitting on a C when he returned to the game in the 4th quarter. He had scored points, but he had not played a very good game. If you had looked up "bad 20pt game" in the dictionary, there would have been a picture of what he was producing. Was not able to get not much early against Durant, until finally spalshing in a wide open three in the second. But then went right back to the struggle again and at one point was 3 - 10 and struggling. He scored on a couple of very questionable touch fouls, but those were gifts. And then of course everything changed in the last couple of minutes, and so the question becomes just how far can/should this grade rise because of it. Hit a late three courtesy of Mike, took a charge form the wildly out of control Durant (Kevin had tried to do that several times before during the game with mixed results) and you just knew the Sonics were going to blow the inbounds play that sank them with 20 seconds to go, them down 2, and us with only 1 second left. Kevin made a great one handed catch and finish under the hoop, but that just doesn't happen unless yoou are a team on a 13 game losing streak just finding ways to lose. But Kevin still had more advaneture left -- actually came down after being fouled a few seconds later and only made 1 of 2 FTs to open the door again, and damn if the Sonics did not step in and hit the huge three to tie it that threatened to turn Kevin = hero into Kevin = choker. But all that ended up doing was setting the table for Kevin = hero again as he hit the buzzer beating shot from the corner to win the game and send the Sonics to 0-14 in January. So now for the grade...played a mostly crap game until it mattered. But when it mattered he (and Mike) hit all the shots. Final numbers look good, so going all the way to A- from C. Almost unjustified for half a quarter of work, but when you are the man down the stretch, funny things happen to your grade.
We be saavy though -- how do you take an embarrassingly close victory over a team that has lost 13 in a row and make it feel good? Come so close to choking the unchokable that it requires a buzzer beater. Then the relief alone makes it all good.
Artest ( C- ) -- grabbed some early boards and beat up rookie Jeff Green. But I am not sure he was eer truly focused onthis game4. There was a teamwide malaise that I think naturally results when you are facing a team that hasn't won since 2007 int he midst of a lost season. Got into foul trouble in third but that wasn't really muhc of a problme for us one way or the other. Came back though to miss shot after shot as we struggled to give the game away in the early 4th. Did finally force up and hit a shot in the final two minutes -- you just knew he was going to take it no matter what, just a question whether we got lucky or not. Tonight we did. Ron is frequently delusional of course, but I doubt he himself would have much to say for his game this time out.
Moore ( C ) -- open inside and out early, but not competing on the glass. I could almost stop this grade after that sentence because....Mikki Moore played a LOT in theis game. He racked up minutes like KG. And in those lot of minutes I am struggling, seriously struggling, to think of one other thing he did of note the whole game. He was outboarded by the Wilcox/Collison/thomas crew, rarely scored after the intial push, and just sort of took up space.
Miller ( B- ) -- put up solid across the baord numbers in a game which did not really feel that solid. His early highlight was hitting three that would have to be termed "big" as much as any shot would be big in a game like this, to break a 2nd quarter Seattle run and push us back out to being up 9. Thought at the time it might be Seattle's one and only run at being respectable. Little did I know at the time that we were going to get in a dogfight with the worst team in the game for the entire second half. Was agin the only King even pretending to rebound, and the irony of us being a team depending on Brad Miller as our rebounding rock is rich beyong belief. Was missing his shots, including a baseline jumper late that helped keep the Sonics in it. And then earned hiself a nice big 'ole grade reduction here for doing the big n' stupid in one last desperate attempt to let the Sonics steal it in the last minute, getting in a scrum with Kurt Thomas with us up 4, and then getting mad because a foul was not called for him and so wildly swinging his arms and intentionally fouling Thomas -- letting the Sonics go down to the other end wiht the clock stopped and cut the lead back to 2. Could easily have been a technical too, which frankly would have served him right for not being able to hold his water, as usual, and setting us up to lose the game minus the Martin heroics.
Martin ( A- ) -- this is an interesting grade for all the obvious reasons, but also for this one: Kevin Martin was sitting on a C when he returned to the game in the 4th quarter. He had scored points, but he had not played a very good game. If you had looked up "bad 20pt game" in the dictionary, there would have been a picture of what he was producing. Was not able to get not much early against Durant, until finally spalshing in a wide open three in the second. But then went right back to the struggle again and at one point was 3 - 10 and struggling. He scored on a couple of very questionable touch fouls, but those were gifts. And then of course everything changed in the last couple of minutes, and so the question becomes just how far can/should this grade rise because of it. Hit a late three courtesy of Mike, took a charge form the wildly out of control Durant (Kevin had tried to do that several times before during the game with mixed results) and you just knew the Sonics were going to blow the inbounds play that sank them with 20 seconds to go, them down 2, and us with only 1 second left. Kevin made a great one handed catch and finish under the hoop, but that just doesn't happen unless yoou are a team on a 13 game losing streak just finding ways to lose. But Kevin still had more advaneture left -- actually came down after being fouled a few seconds later and only made 1 of 2 FTs to open the door again, and damn if the Sonics did not step in and hit the huge three to tie it that threatened to turn Kevin = hero into Kevin = choker. But all that ended up doing was setting the table for Kevin = hero again as he hit the buzzer beating shot from the corner to win the game and send the Sonics to 0-14 in January. So now for the grade...played a mostly crap game until it mattered. But when it mattered he (and Mike) hit all the shots. Final numbers look good, so going all the way to A- from C. Almost unjustified for half a quarter of work, but when you are the man down the stretch, funny things happen to your grade.
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have you seen the arguments on this board?! 
Whether we're playing the Pistons or the Sonics, you never know who's going to win!
